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Ireland’s advertising watchdog has met with the country’s new gambling regulator to discuss advertising legislation and the authority's respective remits.

Ireland’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) disclosed meetings with the Gambling Regulatory Authority in its .

The ASA’s report states: “We will continue to engage with the GRAI and to develop an engagement framework on how a relationship between the two organisations would develop.”

The ASA’s Advertising Code has detailed rules about gambling advertising and the Gambling Regulation Bill 2022 includes provisions relating to advertising. 

The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) has issued a cease-and-desist order to a Vancouver-based gaming company that, through an affiliate, has been producing unlicensed live dealer content in Las Vegas. 

Playgon Interactive and affiliate Bitrate Productions produce blackjack, roulette and baccarat games with live dealers to online casinos worldwide, according to the company’s website. 

In a letter dated July 18, the NGCB notified the company that it must cease operations by 5pm Friday (July 26). The control board advised Playgon that Bitrate’s activity requires appropriate licensing, which Bitrate does not possess from the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC).

In the one-page release Thursday, the NGCB also advised Playgon that the company’s outside legal counsel, on two separate occasions in 2016, represented on behalf of the company that Bitrate’s activity would not require NGC licensing because the content would be used for entertainment purposes only.

At some point, however, Bitrate’s activities went beyond social gaming, the control board said. 

The cease and desist states that Nevada law empowers the NGCB to “investigate for the purpose of prosecution, any suspected criminal violation” of the Nevada Gaming Control Act.

“The NGCB will take all necessary actions to enforce Nevada’s gaming laws and regulations,” NGCB chairman Kirk Hendrick said in a statement.

A representative of Playgon could not immediately be reached for comment.

Standard General has agreed to buy the balance of the shares in gaming company Bally’s Corp. in a deal that values the firm at about $4.6bn, the companies announced on Thursday (July 25). 

Standard General, which already owns 21 percent of Bally’s stock, will acquire the company’s outstanding shares for $18.25 per share.

In March, Standard General offered $15 a share to buy the shares it did not already own. Bally’s expected the deal to close in the first half of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals.

After the deal closes, Standard General will merge Bally’s with a regional casino company it already owns, The Queen Casino & Entertainment Inc., which operates four casinos in Illinois, Iowa and Louisiana. 

The combination will expand the company’s portfolio to 19 casinos, as well as a Bally’s owned racetrack in Colorado, and an online gaming operation.

“While leverage remains a concern for equity investors, the company today has several growth opportunities ahead, including the permanent Chicago casino, optionality with the (Oakland) A's site in Las Vegas, a new casino in Pennsylvania, as well as iGaming in Rhoe Island,” said Barry Jonas, an analyst with Truist Securities. 

The deal announcement comes shortly after Bally’s secured $1.59bn of financing for its Chicago project from Gaming and Leisure Properties, in exchange for the real-estate assets of its casinos in Missouri, Louisiana, as well as under its permanent Chicago casino.

The North Texas Commission is forming a committee of business and community leaders to study issues related to integrated resorts, casino gaming and sports betting.

The committee will study the implications of gaming and make recommendations regarding issues such as economic development, workforce demands, infrastructure requirements and public safety, according to a report in the Dallas Business Journal. 

Efforts to legalize casinos and sports betting have run into opposition in the Texas legislature, even with Las Vegas Sands majority owner Miriam Adelson spending millions of dollars to lobby on behalf of legalized gaming. 

In 2021, Sands hired 76 lobbyists and spent $6.7m in Austin, the Dallas Morning News reported. Despite the company’s efforts, legislation failed to pass. 

Republican Lieutenant Governor and Senate President Dan Patrick has repeatedly said that the Republican majority in the Senate does not support it. Patrick’s current term ends on January 19, 2027, but he is running for re-election for lieutenant governor in 2026. 

Bills supporting casinos and sports betting in Texas were defeated during the 2023 regular legislative session.

Lawmakers are expected to file bills seeking to put the issue of casinos and sports betting on the ballot when the Texas legislature convenes in Austin on January 14, 2025. 

A second judge has declared Mexico’s slot ban introduced in November 2023 decree to be unconstitutional.

The decision at the end of 2023 banned “betting games played with cards … dice, roulette wheels or slot machines.”

Now, Federal Judge María Isabel Bernal has ruled that the decree is unconstitutional, given that the Supreme Court of Justice wrote in 2016 that slot machines are permitted by the Federal Law of Games and Lotteries (LFJS).

That law has not been updated since it was enacted in 1947, despite desperate and loud calls from operators. 

In her ruling, Bernal tagged on the clarification that card games and dice are also allowed.

A district court judge, Gabriel Regis, made a similar ruling earlier this year based on the same 2016 decision.

The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has told an operator it must remove a member of staff from a policy-making position at the company because of their previous involvement with illegal gambling.

The KSA did not name the company or individual, but said it was the first time it had issued such an order.

Separately, the regulator said it had warned a licensee for breaching the ban on untargeted advertising.

The offence came via an TV spot featuring a football player wearing a shirt emblazoned with the logo of a gambling company.

The ad was not specifically for the gambling operator itself, the KSA said.

The UK Charities Commission has closed an investigation into GambleAware over claims it was unduly influenced by the gambling industry.

"The Regulator has stated unequivocally that they are ‘assured that the trustees have taken appropriate steps to both ensure its [GambleAware’s] independence from the gambling industry and to address reputational risks arising from its current funding model’," said Zoe Osmond, CEO of GambleAware.

"Importantly, the Commission has also stated it is ‘satisfied that the Charity’s reliance on industry funding does not impact on decision-making about its activities’," she said.

The decision comes as the future of GambleAware's role is uncertain, with plans for a new Safer Gambling Levy still to be finalised.

Entain has appointed gambling veteran Gavin Isaacs as its new CEO.

The Australian American is a member of the American Gaming Association's Hall of Fame and has previously worked at Scientific Games, DraftKings and Aristocrat, among others.

He will lead Entain alongside Stella David until she transitions to chair, to replace the retiring Barry Gibson on September 30.

Isaacs replaces Jette Nygaard-Andersen, who left Entain in December following investor discontent over the companies acquisition strategy, among other challenges.

“I am confident that Entain has an extremely bright future, and I look forward to leading the Group in capitalising on the opportunities ahead and creating value for all its stakeholders,” said Isaacs.

Massachusetts is poised to become the 11th state to offer interactive lottery games after iLottery provisions were included in a sweeping budget bill approved by the state legislature on Friday (July 19).

The House and Senate both approved the budget bill after a conference committee representing both chambers agreed to include iLottery in a compromise measure that was released on Thursday.

According to the , which still must be signed by Democratic Governor Maura Healey, the Massachusetts Lottery's online offering will be forbidden from accepting credit-card deposits and should include promotional activities to encourage continued play at traditional lottery retailers. Anonymized player data must also be shared by the lottery with researchers to make recommendations on new methods to detect and prevent problem gambling.

The Massachusetts Lottery has advocated for a number of years for authority to expand online like counterparts in other states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Online betting systems may only be located in countries that are listed as having a formal cooperation agreement with Brazil on matters both civil and criminal law, the Ministry of Finance’s Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) confirmed on Thursday (July 18). 

In updating the on its website, the SPA published a question asking it to expand upon the requirement for systems to be located in Brazil unless they meet a series of defined criteria, as originally set by an ordinance published in early May.

The regulator said eligible host countries were published on the of the Department of Asset Recovery and International Collaboration within Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

Among the dozens of countries listed as having the applicable cooperation agreements with Brazil are the United States, Canada, the UK and the Netherlands, with Malta one notable exception.

Local Philippine government opposition to foreign-facing online gambling licensees (POGOs) is building amid national debate on full prohibition, with Bulacan Province and Iloilo City the latest regions to slap bans on POGO operations.

Bulacan, which abuts northern Metro Manila, was the first Philippine province to ban POGO operations on July 4 after four city governments in Manila shut out online gambling.

It is also immediately south of Pampanga Province, where the latest major raid on a POGO-linked cyber-scamming operation rescued slave labourers, uncovered evidence of murder, torture and sex trafficking, and inflamed angry debate on the online gambling industry. 

On Wednesday (July 17), Iloilo City in the central Philippines passed a resolution banning POGOs, formally known as Internet Gaming Licensees, and local gambling agents in what Councilor Romel Duron called a preventative move to keep the city free of gambling crime.

The southwestern archipelago province of Palawan is also reportedly preparing a resolution to ban online gambling operations.

The flurry of prohibitions follows bans in the Manila cities of Pasig and Valenzuela, a licence moratorium in Manila’s Quezon City, a ban on new licensees in Clark Freeport, and growing local council hostility in Pampanga.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was preparing to deliver his State of the Nation Address on Monday afternoon (July 22), which anti-gambling forces are hoping will include a national ban on POGOs.